Performance Mod questions???

[Jay02]

I'm looking at buying a 2002 Esprit. I want it to fly in the 1/4 mile. Any suggestions on what performance mods to do . Hows the upgrade from D.Bell with LSD? Is it possible to get into the 11's Not using nitrous.. Any info would be appreciated. I'm also going to drive the car not store it the garage. I want to enjoy it so mods with reliability in mind.

[FastMatt]

I'm looking at buying a 2002 Esprit. I want it to fly in the 1/4 mile. Any suggestions on what performance mods to do .  Hows the upgrade from D.Bell with LSD? Is it possible to get into the 11's Not using nitrous.. Any info would be appreciated. I'm also going to drive the car not store it the garage. I want to enjoy it so mods with reliability in mind.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I also have a 2002, Getting into the 11's in these cars should be quite easy. Thy can run 12.8's stock (at see level). I have done a few simple up-grades to mine that have made a HUGE difference in power.

Stock the cars run prity good because of how light wait thy are and thay are geared prity steep, but 350hp is kind of week, and to be once in 3rd and 4th gears to me the car felt like it would just fall on it's face.

My 1st up-grade was to do the "red" with the high TQ programming from ecu up-grade. ( from http://www.extremeesprit.com/ ) This made the car feel like a totally different car when you would floor it but to me the car was still flat up top. The ECU up grade razed the boost to "1 BAR" (14.7psi) BUT it was only hitting that for a split second then by 7000rpm it would be down to about 10psi.

With the ECU on the car the lotus was still cannon fotter for my 2005 CTS-V with a magnison blower on it. In 2nd and 3rd gears the lotus could pull the caddy slightly but when I would put the lotus in 4th the Caddy would go walking by and never look back. This was not acceptable to me I could not have my 4000lb family car killing my lotus in races. So something needed to be done.

I new the problem with the loosing boost was the problem. If the car could hold boost it would not drop off so bad on the big end. This proved to be a compound problem. #1 the stock T-25 turbos or AKA "T-too smalls" spool fast but even totally maxed out can only support ~240-250 CRANK HP each, and when run that hard thy are not very efficient, thy start to produce more heat then power when pushed hard, this is a REALY bad thing on a turbo car thats not intercooled! #2 in the stock WG actuators are VERY week, with a hand pump my tests showed thy start to crack open at a lowly 4.5psi!!! that means as back pressure starts to build before the T-25's tiny turbine wheels as RPM increases thy lack the spring pressure to stay closed.

MY fix was to up-grade both the turbos, AND the waist gate actuators to 16psi spring actuators.

At the same time I did this I also installed K&N filters, and a "boost cooler" watter/meth injection kit for safety sake. The car now makes 16psi and holds it rock solid all the way to 7000rpm.

Now the car is a truly fast car, and for me to say that is saying allot seeing how I own 10 second daily driver cars. Now is the lotus a 10 second car? NO (at least not up here at 3600ft), but I have no doute that now the car could run 11's with ease. You can floor it at 70mph on the highway and the car starts to smoke the tires. And hitting the 7000rpm rev limitor in 5th gear now does not seem to take for ever like it did.

Total cost of the mods

ECU $850

Turbos with Acuators $2699

Boost cooler kit $399

K&N filters $110 (set)

The install of all of this was simple and strate forward

Edited January 29, 2006 by FastMatt

[neal]

It's one thing to upgrade the engine to increase the top speed or improve acceleration at high speed. That's bad enough on the drivetrain.

But for standing starts and lot's of low end acceleration, you'll need bucket loads of torque at the wheels, probably running slicks to limit tyre spin. That's seriously bad for the drivetrain.

First the gearbox will break. Upgrade that and them the halfshafts will break. Upgrade those and then the chassis starts to bend. Upgrading that, well you better be dedicated B)

Just be aware what you'll need a large bank balance and plenty of time, not just for the the 'planned' upgrades but for everything that will break along the way!

[FastMatt]

It's one thing to upgrade the engine to increase the top speed or improve acceleration at high speed.  That's bad enough on the drivetrain.

But for standing starts and lot's of low end acceleration, you'll need bucket loads of torque at the wheels, probably running slicks to limit tyre spin.  That's seriously bad for the drivetrain.

First the gearbox will break.  Upgrade that and them the halfshafts will break.  Upgrade those and then the chassis starts to bend.  Upgrading that, well you better be dedicated  B)

Just be aware what you'll need a large bank balance and plenty of time, not just for the the 'planned' upgrades but for everything that will break along the way!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No need to run slicks to run 11's in a 2900lb car with 500+hp... I can tell you this I have been romping on my car prity hard even after my turbo up-grades and NOTHING has broken yet. I just understand that the car has a week tranny and I dont power shift.

Edited January 31, 2006 by FastMatt